Rugby

Rugby was invented in the early 19th century in England. Since then, it has gained much popularity and is not the second most popular sport behind soccer. The US is the current Olympic Champions, but the last time rugby was at the olimpics was in 1929. It was taken out of the Olympics because the dangers of scrumming (see pic below). But today there have been rule changes to make scrumming and other play much safer. Today, the defending world champion is England, with New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa as the top dogs looking for a fight. The US has only won 2 world cup games since 1989!!! I played rugby for four and a half years at Western Oregon and was invited to try out for the Pacific Northwest Colligaite Allstar Team called, the "Loggers." I have also been named coach of the WOU Men's team for the 06-07 season. While playing at Western, our team finised 1st in our league three out of four years, and placed in the top 16 in the nation twice, with the girls team finishing 3rd in the nation last spring!! The rules of the game are simple enough. You hit, run, pass behind, kick, and stay on your side of the line of scrimmage, just like football. There are no pads in rugby (just a mouth piece) and funny enough, there are more serious injuries in football than there are in rugby. The game takes all the conditioning and running of soccer and all the hard hits of football. It is a great game with many traditions, a great social life, and of course a great way to get/keep in shape!! There are some simple what we call, "set pieces" that happen when play stops. Down below, you will see images of these set pieces.

This set piece is called a "scrum." This happens when there is an infracment agains another team. This includes a knock on (when you drop the ball and it falls forward), a forward pass, or when the ball is stuck underneath people and it can not get out. Here, Western Oregon Univeristy is on the left (playing defence on this one) agains Tri Cities Men's Team. The yellow team is on offense so the scrum half (guy in the maroon socks) puts the ball between the two teams. The man in the middle is called the "hooker" and he kicks the ball back to his team. In this the defense can "drive over" the other team to take the ball, or spin the scrum 90 degrees to gain possesion of the ball. In this one WOU drove over and took the ball.

This is called a "lineout". It happens when one team kicks, or runs the ball out of bounce. Not like football, if you take the ball out of play, it is considered a turn over. There are two sets of lifters (two on each side), and a jumper. The hooker will be on the sideline and throw the ball between the two teams (they are about a meter apart), and the jumpers are lifted into the air and they try to tip the ball to their team. My man Cory won this lineout against against the University of Portland.

Rugby is a tough game and it should not be done without a lot of practice!!! This guy was hit by WOU rugger and left the game with a concussion and sprained ankle. If you are going to play,I would highly recomend to train before you try out, and also attempt to gain some knowledge of the game from a team in the area like your very own, WOU Wolves.

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